politics

Washington Times Takes It a Slur Too Far

June 30, 2004

The Washington Times is owned by fringe religious leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who, in addition to having been saluted by members of Congress, has spoken rapturously of the mass extinction of gays and called on Jews to apologize for killing Jesus. Despite all that, Moon’s newspaper has from its start in 1982 earnestly aspired to journalistic respectability. Though the Times‘ political coverage is routinely and transparently slanted, the newspaper does do a decent job with non-political news, and its editorial page, while relentlessly conservative, isn’t any more over-the-top than that of the generally well-respected Wall Street Journal. In short, despite its ownership and its partisan tint, the paper could make a legitimate argument for being included in a list of voices to be taken seriously.

Right up until today.

The Times officially jumped the shark this morning, running one of the most repugnant and ugly pieces of commentary we’ve seen any place other than a men’s room wall. In an op-ed, Jack Wheeler, publisher of a website billed as “the oasis for rational conservatives,” compares women readers waiting in line all over the country to get their copy of Bill Clinton’s autobiography signed to “prostitutes waiting for their abusive pimp”; he takes a swipe at “Hanoi John” Kerry as someone who “looks like a cross between Herman Munster and Gomer Pyle”; and he asserts that, as part of a deal with her husband, “bisexual” Hillary Clinton gets to fool around with women, as well as “the occasional man like Vince Foster.”

We hesitate to even call anyone’s attention to this rabid hackery, but when it appears in print in a publication that aspires to be considered a legitimate part of the national conversation it’s hard to ignore. So, while we shouldn’t have to say this, we will anyway: Ad hominem attacks, rumor-mongering, and character assassination qualify neither as political discourse nor as satire. The Times may be trying to march fitfully toward respectability, but it just found its way into a very deep ditch. And the more pieces it runs like this, the harder it’s going to be to get out.

–Brian Montopoli

Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.